‘These things happen’ - Mahama breaks silence on Duffuor’s injunction, withdrawal

Former president John Dramani Mahama has spoken for the first time about the last-minute issues that nearly derailed the party’s May 13 parliamentary and presidential primaries.

An injunction by aspirant Kwabena Duffuor threatened the process before it was withdrawn with about 24-hours to opening of polls.

Duffuor who was contesting the viability of the voters register and photo album and their respective releases to his campaign team, subsequently withdrew from the contest.

Mahama, after voting in Bole on May 13, was asked by journalists what he made of the whole process.

He responded: “The problem with this one is, they waited till the last few days to the elections, and then decided to file an injunction on the process and then later withdrew the injunction and then withdrew from the contest.

“It made it difficult to deal with some of the issues they were raising at that time, so, I think that that is where the problem is, but again, these things happen and we just look forward,” he stressed.

Mahama wins landslide

Mahama, meanwhile, spoke for the first time since winning the NDC presidential flagbearership contest.

In a landslide victory, the former president polled 297,603 (98.9%) against his contender Kojo Bonsu who polled 3,181 (1.1%) in the election held on Saturday, May 13, 2023.

The Electoral Commission's returning officer made the declaration in the wee hours of May 14, 2023.

In his speech, he said he was humbled by the vote of confidence and described the outcome as a victory for the NDC as a whole.

He thanked God for a campaign that was largely incident free as he crisscrossed the country to canvass for votes.

He reserved thanks for constituency executives for their support during his trips across the country.

He also thanked the three contenders in the race, Dr. Kwabena Dufuor, who withdrew at the last minute and Kojo Bonsu who was his only challenger.

Mahama reminded the party that their eyes must be on the ultimate prize which is to win political power come 2024.

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SARA